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Organize Those Photos |
| By:Melissa Stacey on Tue 06 May 2008 1:31 PM under Get Organized |
May is National Scrapbook Month, which, of course, got me thinking about photo and memorabilia organization. Photography is something that I absolutely love…my family and friends will tell you that I am a bit of a fanatic. I have thousands of pictures that are kept in scrapbooks, digital photo albums and photo storage boxes.
Thankfully I take digital photos now, so I can pick and choose what stays or goes without actually printing anything. This, of course, reduces the photo clutter. However, I do have lots…and I mean LOTS…of pictures that I want to do something with, but have not gotten to yet.
So what do we do with them? This week, let’s start with organizing them:
Purge & Sort – If you have a box of pictures that are not in any particular order, sort through them and separate the pictures into 3 piles:
- Photos to Showcase – These are the pictures that you really love and want to create something to showcase them.
- Extra Photos – These are extra photos that you want to keep, but don’t necessarily want to showcase. A good storage solution for these are acid free boxes.
- Throw Away Photos – Don’t feel bad throwing out pictures that you do not like or that turned out bad. You do not need pictures that are blurry, have heads cut off or are just plain bad. You won’t use them, so there is not much of a point of storing them.
Categorize & Label – Once you have sorted through the photos, you will want to categorize them. There are several ways to categorize including chronological, by event, by person or by a time period (college, high school, first baby, wedding, birthday, etc). Label the pictures, put them in acid free envelopes based on each category and store them in acid free boxes. If you are organizing digital pictures, then create folders for your categories and keep the pictures stored there until you need them. By using acid free products, you will preserve your pictures.
Digital Photos – If your pictures are digital, create category folders for your photos so you know where to find them. You will also want to delete the photos you do not want. Remember to back up your pictures on an external hard drive, CD or thumb drive so that you do not lose any of your pictures if your computer crashes.
Stay tuned…next week I will give you some fun ideas for showcasing your photos!
